Reflections on the state of the world which proceed with the scriptures in one hand and the newspaper in the other

Sunday, February 27, 2011

More on Mormons and Muslims

Interestingly, no sooner had I posted the entry on Glen Beck’s absurd analogies than I find this item on the Google news site:

Glenn Beck does not have a reputation for admitting mistakes, but after his recent comments on the radio comparing Reform Judaism to Islamic Extremism, he apologized on his Feb. 24 program, tail tucked firmly between his legs…."I've always told you to do your own homework," he says. "And, in this case, I didn't do enough homework." He also says it was "one of the worst analogies of all time" and agreed with those who'd labeled his comments as "ignorant."

Not everyone is appeased though. Mediaite also has a response from Jewish Funds for Justice, the organization Beck was speaking of when he made his initial comments. "Glenn Beck's apology for comparing Reform Judaism to "Radicalized Islam" is welcome but incomplete," reads the statement. "Glenn Beck's characterization of Reform Judaism is in keeping with his longstanding hostility toward people who see their faith linked to pursuing the common good."

I’d actually take it one step further. Beck and the sea of misanthropes he titillates daily don’t just demonstrate hostility toward those who recognize the necessary link between faith and the common good. In reality, they hold the very notion of the common good in contempt generally.

Beck’s polemical circus is one of many predictable progeny of the 1980s Reagan/Rand school of politics and economics in which self-interest at the expense of anything and anyone who happens to get in the way became the only acceptable goal of American public policy. While the guardians of the plutocracy offer a rather pathetic dogma about how pursuit of individual good somehow serves the common good, the evidence of the last three decades is stacked in contradiction of such a self-serving delusion.

The reality is that the common good has been looted and pillaged by three decades of self-interest. The bottom 90% of Americans now own only 22% of its material wealth. Nearly 2/3 of that wealth is owned by the top 1%. The general welfare has been dismantled and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Thus, the blessings of liberty have come to be in doubt for ourselves and particularly our prosterity. Our nation-state is now trembling before the onslaught of this hostility toward the common good, its very ongoing existence increasingly in doubt.

It would be a step in the direction of actual truth telling (remembering that confession is, after all, good for the soul) if Beck simply professed his true religion here and the role it plays in his demonizing rhetoric. Ostensibly Mormon, what is clear when one hears Beck speak is that his actual faith is in free market fundamentalism, a belief system which has generally proven oblivious to any kind of critique from real life – particularly a vision of social justice offered by people of faith.

Little wonder that those who would have the audacity to speak in the name of their religion to criticize unabashed greed, the rape and pillaging of the planet and the deleterious effects this has on its weakest members have been targeted by Glen Beck, the self-appointed guardian of mammon. Glen knows only too well, there is no enemy of evil quite like truth telling.

About Me

I am a fifth generation Floridian, a fourth generation educator, third generation college educator. My great grandparents were named Reed and Wright so I guess it was fate that I would end up a teacher. I am a recovering lawyer who still holds an inactive license with the Florida Bar (I stopped practice in 1990) and an ordained Episcopal priest. My spirituality is that of an inner world (nature) mystic. I am Franciscan to my very core, a professed member of 26 years in the Third Order Society of St. Francis (TSSF). Andy , my gentle souled, soft-spoken partner of 44 years became my legal husband in 2010 on the steps of the US Supreme Court. He is G-d's greatest gift to my life. I live within two hours of my nuclear family members. Historically I have been a yellow dawg Democrat though my politics are decidedly Green. I hold a Ph.D. in Religion, Law and Society from FSU, an M.Div. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific, member seminary of the GTU in Berkeley, CA, and a J.D. and a B.A. in History and Secondary Ed from the University of Florida. I complete a two year program at Richard Rohr’s Living School for Contemplation and Action in Albuquerque, NM August 2017.